MBUK Review The Bitmap

Back in May when the Bitmaps first arrived, we built up a Works bike and sent it to the guys at MBUK for a review. The results are in and you can read the whole thing in issue 361...

We don't want to give the whole game away - that would be a spoiler. You'll have to pick up the mag (in stores now) to get all the juicy details. But it's fair to say they liked what they called a "Sheffield born & bred aluminium party starter".

This is the bike that we sent - a Bitmap Works in Large/Grey featuring Rockshox Pike RC forks, Hopetech Enduro wheels and a SRAM X01 Eagle groupset. It's the big-dog in the range at £2799 but we do other builds starting from £1999 and of course you can take the frame only option for only £449 with a CNC axle and seat clamp included.

"Point the Bitmap downhill and the ride is rowdy, fast and way too good for a bike with only 140mm travel at the front"

It always feels like a bit of a risk sending bikes off for review. Obviously I'm confident in it, having designed and developed it myself and tested the wheels off it before putting it into production. And everyone who's bought a Bitmap so far has been fully stoked on it. But there's always that nagging, slightly irrational doubt... What if they don't like it? Turns out there was no need as the MBUK crew emailed to say how much they'd enjoyed riding the bike, and from what they say in the review, they clearly got what the Bitmap is all about.

When you've got a new bike to launch it can be tough trying to stand out from the crowd; there's so much great content out there. But when the Edit v3 was ready to go we knew we had to do something a bit different, so we went back to the drawing board, with a bit of help.

We caught up with Graham Pinkerton, a full time mtb guide operating out of Chamonix. Graham's put over 7100km of distance and 534,000m of vertical into his Edit v2 in just 21 months. With a lot of emphasis on the new Edit v3 now, we wanted to hear from a seasoned v2 rider how his bike has handled the hard yards...